Empty Netter Assists - Western Conference - 2-22-09
Central Division
-Cristobal Huet made 30 saves and led the Blackhawks to a 3-1 win at Dallas. Stars goaltender Marty Turco had 33 saves in the loss.
-Shea Weber's overtime goal gave the Predators a 1-0 win at St. Louis. Pekka Rinned made 20 saves in his fifth shutout win of the season.
-Sean Windsor of the Detroit Free Press has a really good piece on Detroit goaltender and former Penguin Ty Conklin (right).
-The Blue Jackets put defenseman Ole-Kristian Tollefsen on injured reserve due to a knee injury and recalled defenseman Aaron Rome from Syracuse of the AHL.
-Columbus claimed forward Chris Gratton off waivers from the Lightning.
-Count former NHL defenseman Phil Housley as a fan of Detreoit defenseman Chris Chelios.
-Former Chicago coach Denis Savard is still proud to be a Blackhawk.
-Injured Blues defenseman Erik Johnson has resumed skating. He has missed the entire season due to a knee injury suffered in a golf cart mishap.
Northwest Division
-Mats Sundin returned to Toronto in a big way. His shootout goal gave the Canucks a 3-2 win at Toronto. Pavol Demitra also added a goal for Vancouver while teammate Henrik Sedin had two assists. Sundin played his first game against his former team since signing with Vancouver earlier this season.
-Sundin's goal:
-Check out this amazing deflection by Vancouver forward Alex Burrows last night:
-Toronto's fans welcomed back Sundin:
-Owen Nolan had two goals and an assist for the Wild in a 5-2 defeat of the Red Wings. Teammate Pierre-Marc Bouchard had a goal and an assist while Niklas Backstrom made 35 saves in the win. Ville Leino had a goal and an assist for Detroit.
-The Wild found a way to shut down the Red Wings' top line of Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Dan Cleary.
-Minnesota forward Andrew Brunette sat out due to a knee injury and ended his consecutive games streak at 509.
-Todd Bertuzzi's shootout goal gave the Flames a comeback 3-2 road win against the rival Oilers. Shawn Horcoff had two assists for Edmonton while Dwayne Roloson made 30 saves in the win.
-The Flames recalled forward Kyle Greentree from Quad City of the AHL.
-Avalanche forward Paul Stastny (right) is close to returning from a broken forearm.
-He's only 29, but Wild defenseman Martin Skoula already has 700 NHL games under his belt.
Pacific Division
-Evgeni Nabokov made 22 saves for the Sharks in a 3-1 defeat of the Thrashers. San Jose set a franchise record with its 26th home win of the season. Sharks forward Jeremy Roenick returned to the lineup after a 10-week layoff due to a shoulder injury and recorded his 700th career assist.
-Corey Perry had a goal and two assists for the Ducks in a 5-2 win at Columbus. Teammates Ryan Getzlaf and Scott Niedermayer each recorded two assists. The Ducks won despite only getting 13 shots on goal. Rick Nash had a goal and an assist for the Blue Jackets.
-Ducks goon and Washington, Pa. native George Parros went at it with Blue Jackets goon Jared Boll. Each landed a couple of big hits:
-Boll also had a bout with Travis Moen after a big hit on Ducks forward Brendan Morrison:
-Olli Jokinen scored his 500th career point by scoring a hat trick and led the Coyotes to a 6-3 win at Los Angeles. Viktor Tikhonov added a goal and an assist. Ilya Bryzgalov made 31 saves in the win.
-Kings defenseman Kyle Quincey had a pretty spirited brawl with Coyotes fowrard Daniel Winnik yesterday:
-The Sharks demoted forwards Lukas Kaspar, Jamie McGinn and Brad Staubitz to Worcester of the AHL.
-Check out this save Dallas' Marty Turco made yesterday:
-Stars forward and former Penguin Toby Petersen has managed to stick in the NHL despite having diabetes.
-Kings defenseman Denis Gauthier was suspended for two games due to a blow to the head of Sharks forward Patrick Marleau. It's his second suspension this season for hitting an opponent in the head.
-Ducks defenseman Brian Salcido is living the dream.
(Photos: Conklin-Jamie Squire/Getty Images; Stastny-David Zalubowski/Associated Press)